Zim faces import shortfall of 600MW (28-08-07)

sometimes going up to 20 hours a day as the financially strapped parastatal, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) failed to source foreign currency for imports.

At the onset of the winter season, the parastatal, together with its parent ministry, the ministry of energy lied in state media that load shedding was to worsen due to a programme that prioritised the supply of power to winter wheat farmers.

It has however since emerged that the country will this year have the worst wheat harvest since the land reform programme was implemented in 2000 due to, among other reasons, unreliable power supply.

The country supplements its local power needs by importing more than 750MW, about 35 percent of national electricity requirements from neighbouring countries among them Mozambique, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

ZESA Holdings Group Stakeholder Relations Manager Mr Fullard Gwasira said HydroCabora Bassa of Mozambique had reduced supply from 350MW to 150MW while ESKOM of South Africa stopped supplying power to Zimbabwe altogether.

Said Gwasira,”Of the 150MW (from HCB), only 50 MW is on a firm agreement, the other 100 is nonfirm and is mainly dependent on the availability of supply. Arrears have, however, built up due to foreign currency constraints”.

He claimed ESKOM cannot afford firm supplies as it was also failing to produce enough for the South African market.

“With ESKOM, there are no firm agreements.We get power only when they have it and we know that currently they do not have excess power and they have a shortfall bigger than ours, thus they are not exporting. Their power station at Quebec has a shortfall of 900MW”.

He said the contract between ZESA and SNEL of the Democratic Republic of Congo was still running although some power was being lost along the way due to vandalism.SNEL provides Zimbabwe with 100MW.

“The line is too long and hardly reliable, some of the power is lost along the way through transmission loss and is also susceptible to vandalism, thus the chances of us getting the maximum are very low. However, we are getting power despite not paying because of foreign currency constraints”.

ZESA is among other parastatals which have been hardest hit by the country’s eight year economic meltdown,set on the sliding plane by the government’s chaotic land grabs of 2000-CAJ News.